Biography:

Petra is an Indirect Tax Manager at Protokorp d.o.o who principally advices on all aspects of VAT. She has MSc in law and BSc in economics. She has worked with various tax consultancy firms covering different types of taxes including corporate income tax and private individual taxation.

Petra advises businesses of all sizes as well as private individuals. She has experience in tax advising for many international companies from various industries.

Biography:

Antonia is a professional support consultant in the corporate division of Herbert Smith Freehills LLP. She specialises in giving technical advice on company law, listed company regulation and M&A, with a particular focus on public M&A. She writes regularly on developments in these areas and delivers a wide range of legal training to colleagues and clients, as well as lobbying on legal and regulatory developments. She contributes to Tolley's Tax Planning.

Biography:

Ventsislav (Venzi) Vassilev is the Senior Strategist and founder of PKF Bulgaria and has a strong background and experience in the accountancy and tax consultancy sector. Mr Vassilev is a graduate of the University of Bristol in the UK in Economics and Accounting and started his career with Arthur Andersen & Co in the early 90s. Then in 1995 he founded Rex Consulting - a fast growing group of consultancy companies in Bulgaria which in 2014  joined the network of PKF International.

Venzi Vassilev has extensive experience in consulting and assisting foreign investors in Bulgaria. He leads a team of multilingual professional accountants, lawyers, financiers, business experts and administrative assistants. Under his leadership the team has created a company culture of a welcoming and informal atmosphere which is combined with a strong commitment to the client's business.

Currently PKF Bulgaria and the Rex Consulting group of companies have four offices in Bulgaria (Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna and Bansko); all of the offices are registered as separate entities. Rex Consulting Ltd also has a subsidiary in London  that specializes in asset management.

Mr Vassilev has been retired from his CEO position  since 2019 and remains the chairman of the supervisory board of the Rex Consulting Group. He continues to advise the firm's key clients on various strategic investment and financial issues.

Biography:

Julian is a barrister at Exchequer Chambers, part of The Barrister Group (www.exchequerchambers.com). He was called to the Bar in 1995 and he has been a partner with major City and West End solicitors’ practices. Julian specialises in disputes that arise from any tax or tax-related matter. His practice covers all areas of tax, including corporate, international, employment, private client, VAT, SDLT, Stamp Taxes, and customs and excise duty; together with areas concerning professional negligence and judicial review. He acts as an advocate and in an advisory capacity and has appeared both on his own and as part of a team in a wide variety of cases in the First-tier Tribunal, Upper Tribunal, High Court and Court of Appeal (some of which have been live streamed). He represents taxpayers and HMRC. He has a Ph.D in tax (awarded by the University of London); and he has written and lectured extensively on tax issues. For further information please see taxbarrister.com. He also contributes to Tolley's "A Practical Guide to Tax Disputes".

Biography:

Jenny Tragner is a Director and Head of Policy at ForrestBrown, leading the technical approach for the firm on all aspects of R&D tax relief.

She is an experienced chartered accountant and ATT fellow with a wealth of expertise in all aspects of R&D tax. She specialises in supporting businesses with complex cases involving R&D reliefs, including dispute resolution and tax advisory projects.

She began her career at KPMG in 2002 and has specialised in R&D tax for the past 15 years. In this time, she has advised many of the UK’s most innovative companies.

Jenny is an expert in R&D tax policy and has contributed to numerous consultations on R&D tax relief over the course of her career.

She co-authored the Tolley’s Tax Digest on R&D tax relief and is a regular contributor to publications including Taxation and Bloomberg Tax. In November 2022, Jenny was invited to give evidence to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee inquiry into the incentive. She also contributes to TolleyGuidance Corporate module.

Biography:

Nicola Vernola is an Associate at Chiomenti law firm. During his professional experience, he has developed expertise in tax law and tax planning, with a particular focus on international taxation and domestic and international tax policy.

He is a member of the Bari Bar (Italy) since 2024.

Biography:

I trained in Private Client Services at Andersens and qualified as a CTA in 2000. In 2002 I joined BPP in Manchester as a CTA tutor before leaving in 2010 to set up iCount Training.

Biography:

Hira is a Real Estate Tax Partner within BDO’s award winning Real Estate and Construction Group. He has specialised in property taxation for almost all his professional career and currently advises a wide range of clients in relation to their UK and global property interests. A particular specialism is UK and overseas collective investment schemes, both regulated and unregulated.

Hira is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, a Member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation and has sat on the Tax Committees of the British Property Federation and INREV.

Biography:

Ross Birkbeck is a barrister practising from Old Square Tax Chambers in Lincoln’s Inn. He can be instructed to advise in all areas of tax and trusts law, with a particular interest in private client and close company work, and charities. He can also be instructed to assist in disputes with HMRC at any stage in the proceedings. He is currently co-author of Taxation of Charities and Nonprofit Organisations (with James Kessler QC). Ross is the online moderator of The Taxation of Non-residents and Foreign Domiciliaries (by James Kessler QC).

Biography:

Debbie trained as a Chartered Accountant with Coopers and Lybrand in London before moving into exam training in 1998 and becoming CTA qualified in 2000.

Debbie has taught tax and accountancy across various qualifications for over twenty years and was a member of the ICAEW tax exam team for a number of years.

Debbie joined Tolley Exam Training in 2004. She teaches across the ATT and CTA qualifications and is involved in material production.

Biography:

Steven is a tax-qualified Chartered Surveyor who has specialised in tax incentives, including capital allowances and land remediation relief for over 20 years. Previously he held senior specialist positions in 'Big 4' and national mid-tier accountancy firms. Capital allowances underpin income tax and corporation tax calculations by giving tax relief for money spent to buy, build or alter commercial property.

Steven works with owner-occupiers, investors and their advisers to provide capital allowances opinions, transaction support and specialist valuations for all types of property.  This includes resolving HM Revenue capital allowances enquiries and giving expert evidence to tribunals and courts.

Steven has contributed to many articles and books, including: Bloomsbury Professional's Capital Allowances, Tolley's Tax Planning, RICS's official Guidance Note for surveyors on Capital Allowances and Land Remediation Relief, and Practical Law Company's Practice Note on Commercial Property Standard Enquiry 32 dealing with capital allowances.

Biography:

Wouter Brackx is a Partner with Moore Belgium. For over twenty years, he has been giving VAT advice to domestic and international clients on operational business matters and restructurings.  Prior to joining Moore Belgium in December 2020, Wouter worked with PwC (2000 to 2010) and was a Partner with PKF-VMB (2011-2020).

Wouter primarily works for dynamic businesses/groups with international activities, mainly in the areas of manufacturing & distribution,  leasing, services and technology.  He is pragmatic, hands-on and has a strong solution focus, based on know-how.

Wouter is an expert in VAT planning (avoiding unnecessary VAT costs/registrations), VAT risk identification & mitigation, VAT cash flow optimizations (supply chain), VAT automation and international VAT compliance coordination. He also provides assistance in obtaining advance rulings from the Belgian Ruling Commission. He and his team also have significant experience in due diligence work for private equity funds.

Biography:

I am a Partner at Morton Fraser, based in Edinburgh, and I head the firm's Corporate Division. I am dual-qualified (Scotland and England/Wales), having practised in England for seven years before moving to Scotland and becoming Scots qualified in 1999.

I am a former winner of the Law Awards of Scotland's 'Corporate Lawyer of the Year' award and my corporate and commercial practice mainly advises owner-managed SMEs, with particular expertise in private equity/angel investment (advising investees as well as investors), company share/asset sales and purchases, joint ventures, corporate restructurings, contractual commercial matters (agency, distribution and franchising etc), IP, IT and data protection.

Since 2011, my team has advised the winners of the Converge Challenge, an annual competition run by Heriot-Watt University to support the next generation of research entrepreneurs in Scotland. I am also a member of Heriot-Watt University's Innovation Advisory Group and Morton Fraser's Management Board.

Biography:

After studying accountancy at the LSE, Roderick changed to the law and became a solicitor, and, until 1996, headed pension and employment law in the corporate/commercial firm KJD in Stoke-on-Trent, as the only pension law solicitor between Birmingham and Manchester. In that year he started his sole practice from home, specialising in pensions, largely helping other solicitors when they have pension law problems and need a specialist on their team or to whom to refer their clients. Roderick also contributes to New Law Journal and other LexisNexis publications. His leisure time is split between gardening, old cars and reading and writing.

Biography:

Emilie advises companies and senior individuals on all aspects of employment law, contentious and non contentious. She is particularly experienced in dealing with complex employment tribunal litigation for employer clients, as well as providing practical advice on a range of day to day employment and HR issues.

Biography:

Sebastián Vicuña is a seasoned professional with over 10 years of experience in the field of tax law, international tax law, corporate law, and regulatory compliance. He has a deep understanding of these areas, as well as a strong commitment to ensuring that his clients are in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.

He is highly skilled in the areas of corporate formation and structure, mergers and acquisitions, tax consulting, legal advisory, and regulatory compliance. He works closely with his clients to understand their needs and to develop strategies that help them achieve their goals while minimizing risk.

He has been a lecturer in different academic programs and training courses for different universities and other public and private institutions.

He's the editor of LCP's weekly Pensions Bulletin and undertakes other technical writing for the firm.

Sebastian is the author of the Chile country guide for Tolley’s Global Mobility/Employment Taxes.

Biography:

I am a US Corporate Tax and Global Mobility specialist with focus on US tax advisory and compliance for small and medium-sized businesses with US based offices and employees. I provide integrated US corporate and personal tax solutions to international businesses with US operations and their employees on short-term or long-term assignment in the US.

Biography:

Matt Parkes is a Director in Deloitte's indirect tax practice, specializing in environmental taxes and VAT. He has assisted a number of businesses with identifying potential environmental tax issues of infrastructure and similar projects, together with advising on and implementing solutions to mitigate environmental tax exposures.  Matt has worked closely with industry and authorities surrounding the introduction of significant changes to the Climate Change Levy.